We’re here for a good time (not a long time) – by Elin Andreassen

Abstract from a project presentation by Elin Andreassen.

How do you act when you realize that your favorite café might disappear? In handling the qualities that is already there, urban planning tends to give priority to architectonic qualities. Things that are already there – in action –
the institutions with all their people, know-how’s and their traditional and present-day functions are all too often neglected, taken for granted; they are not missed before it is too late.

The artist duo Hertling & Andreassen are working with the vulnerability between what was and what is to become in urban planning processes; the collective of buildings, things, people and functions, stories, traditions and memories that disappear when distinctive places are changed for the future. Exhausted of rhetorical debates and requirements for revitalization and visions, they dig into the qualities of what already exists. They seek out places and come upon people, which often lead to long-lasting projects and collaborations. It’s like a detective work they do, trying to build an archive of remembrance as a base for performing their actions.